


Make this go on forever

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 08:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16850914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: The world is a very unjust place: Emma can barely draw a stick figure on a good day, whereas Neal is just sitting there, casually drawing gorgeous Santas, elves and reindeers on their Christmas cards.





	Make this go on forever

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Christmas cards" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). AKA, _more_ pointless fluff. Watch me mend my soul through countless fluffy verses.

 

“This is horribly unfair,” Emma states, holding up a card sporting an obscenely good drawing of Santa Claus.

“Come on, you are good at other things,” Neal offers, although his smug grin says a lot about how much he’s enjoying this getting under her skin. “Plus, technically I’ve had centuries of practice.”

Emma highly doubts that his time on Neverland counts, considering that there he was carving drawings in a cave using damn _rocks_ , but that excuse gets even lamer when you look at _Henry’s_ work.

“Henry is _thirteen_ ,” she points out, holding up a Rudolph card that isn’t exactly on Neal’s level but is _very_ good, especially from the point of view of someone who can barely draw a stick figure on a good day. “It’s all inborn talent, you two are ridiculously good.”

“He said he used to draw a lot when he was little,” Neal points out, without raising his eyes on her because he’s busy perfecting another Rudolph. Burning jealously aside, Emma is happy that he’s having fun with this. “Regina has a whole drawer of those.”

“I’ll ask her to show me, then,” she replies, a note of bitterness in her voice. Although Henry seems to have completely forgiven her for abandoning him, some days it still stings to be reminded that there are a lot of things that she missed out on, such as collecting childhood drawings. Had she been there, maybe she would have put some of them on the fridge or something.

She sits down, grabbing a pen to do her part of the work: since she’s, as previously stated, useless when it comes to drawing, she has been tasked with writing “Merry Christmas” on all of them, in the fanciest handwriting she can manage.

All this because Mary Margaret _loves_ Christmas cards – something about a lovely thought, spreading positivity and all that –, and she’s going to be very disappointed if they don’t send out any. Even though they all live in the same city and they _will_ gather to celebrate.

“Come on, it was this or the family pictures,” Neal reminds her, with a friendly pat on the back.

“Yeah, dodged a bullet with that one.”

The family pictures would have meant dressing up in Christmas fashion, _and_ possibly dragging Regina through it too. They probably would have sent Henry to ask, since he’s the one with the best chance of getting a yes instead of a fireball.

Her parents and little Leo did that last year, and both Mary Margaret and David seemed to be sincerely enjoying themselves, so it didn’t look awkward at all, in spite of his Santa costume and her elf costume. Leo was a little over a year old at the time, he was wearing a reindeer costume and he looked adorable, in spite of how he was frowning at the camera.

Doing something like that with Neal, Henry and Regina would probably be embarrassing as hell and not a picture that she’d want to be passed on to future generations – although it’d probably be fun; Neal would have a blast dressing up as Santa, she’s willing to bet that he’ll volunteer to do it for Leo, when he’s a little older.

“It’s nice,” Neal comments, startling her out of her thoughts. She raises her eyes to find that he’s staring at her with a besotted smile. “We have Christmas traditions now,” he adds, when she raises her eyebrows questioningly. “We have relatives to send cards to, we even have awkward photos to bitch about. I mean, it’s different from—”

“From cheap beer and a stolen car?” she offers, with a slight smile. “That wasn’t a bad Christmas either.”

“No,” he agrees, thoughtfully. “But this is pretty much all we’ve ever wanted.”

Yeah, it is. They have a family, a _home_ , and they are together to enjoy it. “It lacks a decent beach,” she jokes.

“Well, we took a rain check on the honeymoon,” he points out, shrugging. “We still have to collect, and Florida hasn’t gone anywhere.”

They got married that summer, and a magical disaster decided to strike right when they were planning on taking off for said honeymoon. One thing led to another, and they didn’t go at all. Because a Saviour’s work is never done and Neal’s luck historically tends to be as shitty as it can get.

Emma is honestly surprised that they managed to get married in the first place without any interruptions, like the sky falling on their heads, a magic bean being thrown at their feet out of the blue – she’s still not over that scare, sue her –, or simply someone in the crowd randomly screaming ‘I object!’.

“How about we go for our first anniversary?” she offers, and it’s still a little weird to look at the ring on her finger and firmly think _This is going to stay here for the rest of my life_. She’s never been much of an optimist, and yet this feels like a done deal. Like a real _‘Til death do us apart_.

“Sure,” he smiles. “Unless there is another incoming disaster.”

She smiles back. “Then we’ll just do it the next year,” she simply states, and she loves the way in which his smile twitches slightly in surprise and his face lightens up a little.

They have all the time in the world, and it feels amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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